"THE EXPENDABLES FOUR" (2023)(*** OUT OF ****)

"Act of Valor" director Scott Waugh's "Expendables 4" qualifies not only as the most violent, 'splatterific' entry in the mercenary franchise, but also as the sequel with the shoddiest CGI wizardry which sabotages its authenticity. "Law Abiding Citizen" scenarist Kurt Wimmer, "Black Lotus" scribe Tad Daggerhart, and "Heist" writer Max Adams have recycled all the standard cliches for this outlandish actioneer, but they've put Dave Callaham's original characters through a wringer. Mind you, there is no shortage of bullet-blasting firefights. Whether on the ground in Libya or aboard a booby-trapped supertanker at sea equipped with a doomsday bomb, the body count tops out at 284! Predictably, the stakes are far higher than the original "Expendables" (2010) and our invincible heroes cheat death repeatedly with their fists, feet, wits, and weapons. Worse, heroic Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone of "Rocky") vanishes early after a harrowing fracas with trigger-happy hostiles who have stolen nuclear denotators from one of Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan ordinance depots. The villains are as savage as they are resourceful. The chief villain, Suarto Rahmat (Iko Uwais), shoots an innocent child off-screen in the head while his father watches in one scene. These dastards are scheming to foment a war between Russia and America. Mercifully, Waugh and his writers never let the action bog down in boilerplate exposition. They paint our heroes into a corner early and put their survival skills on the line. Predictably, Lee Christmas (Jason Statham of "Crank") vows to avenge the demise of his best friend.

The stakes in "Expendables 4" loom larger than ever before, and the consequences are devastating. Waugh and his writers provide the characters with some amusing, hardboiled banter, especially the verbal sparring between Barney and Lee as they rib each other with gleeful abandon. Andy Garica storms into the action as an exasperating, upper-echelon, CIA spook named Marsh. Barney Ross and Marsh have a history together. The filmmakers withhold this crucial material until later when it makes more sense. Marsh briefs the Expendables about a critical mission in Libya. They must thwart a nefarious mercenary, Rahmat (Iko Uwais), who wants to hijack nuclear denotators for an enigmatic terrorist known only as Ocelot. Incredibly, not only do the Expendables botch the mission, but also the aircraft Barney flew them in on is blown out of the blue and crashes. Again, a well-aimed shot by Rahmat on a .50 caliber is the coup de grace that sends Barney plummeting to the ground. Approximately, 28 minutes into this escapade, Lee finds Barney's incinerated remains buckled into the pilot's seat. Marsh chews out Christmas for his failure to carry out Barney's orders and prevent the theft of the detonators. Christmas had broken off his pursuit of the warheads to rescue Barney.

Ultimately, Christmas is booted off the team. Lee's curvaceous babe of a girlfriend, Gina (Megan Fox), supervises the second attempt to defeat Rahmat and retrieve the denotators, but now the stakes are soared. These villains have hijacked a cargo ship and stashed a nuclear warhead aboard the vessel cruising into Russian waters. These fiends want to incite World War III. Our heroes 'halo' down from high altitudes, open their parachutes, and touch down on the cargo ship. No sooner have our heroes assembled for the mission than the villains disarm and imprison! Meantime, Lee has been lurking on the periphery. Although no longer an official Expendable, he tracks his former comrades by means of an electronic homing device hidden in a watch. Along the way, he encounters another of Barney's many friends, Decha (Tony Jaa), who is wrestling with a Jekyll & Hyde split-personality. He is a born fighter of great tenacity. However, all those years of unrelenting combat have taken a toll on him. When he meets Christmas, Decha refuses to let him steal the Expendables boat. Christmas enlightens him about Barney's disappearance, and Decha abandons his non-violent vows.

The tenacious villains aren't easily subdued. Meantime, franchise stalwarts will chuckle at Toll Road's blather about his cauliflower ear. Dolph Lundgren's hulking sniper Gunner still wrestles with alcohol and tries to wean himself off the bottle. The volatile Christmas & Gina relationship boils down to a back-and-forth scrap. She proves herself no damsel-in-distress during a display of her agility in close-quarters combat with Christmas. Latino recruit Galan (Jacob Scipio) brags about being the son of the Antoino Banderas character Galgo in "Expendables 3." Galan is just as loquacious as Galgo and as impetuous. Waugh orchestrates two over the top combat sequences. The first takes place in Libya, while the second commences aboard the cargo ship at night. One of the best scenes depicts Christmas hauling butt on a bike with twin machine guns mounted on the handle bars. Careening recklessly around the ship, Lee strafes the villains pursuing him without mercy.

Several new faces crop up for this high-octane thriller about mercenaries on a classified Black Ops mission. Like "Expendables 3," several new faces flesh out the familiar old ones. Asian marital arts legend Tony Jaa of "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" trilogy, Indonesian martial artist Iko Uwais of "The Raid: Redemption," "Transformers" actress Megan Fox, HipHop vocalist 50 Cent, aka Curtis James Jackson, "Bad Boys for Life" actor Jacob Scipio, "Female Fight Squad's" Levy Tran, and "Godfather III" actor Andy Garcia join Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lungren, and Randy Couture. For the record, previous "Expendable" characters that Jet Li and Terry Crews portrayed were AWOL in this installment.

Although it suffers from some obvious second-rate CGI, "Expendables 4" delivers more than enough trials by combat to gratify fans. After Barney exits the fireworks in a spectacular plane crash, a reluctant Lee Christmas (Statham) steps into his shoes. Megan Fox manages to look both seductive and pugnacious as Lee's girlfriend Gina. Clocking in at an energetic 104 minutes, the R-rated, fourth installment of "The Expendables" franchise moves swiftly to its explosive finale.